Harry's life is all exciting again and the plotting in the supernatural world is reaching greater, and more confusing, levels.An entire building was destroyed by immense power and in the aftermath it was clear that Marcone, Chicago's mob boss, has been kidnapped. Harry is on the job working with Murphy – and only has more incentive when Mab, Unseelie Queen of the Winter Court, calls in one of the favours he owes her to get him involved – and threatens him with her not-inconsiderable wrath should he refuse. Of course, this is complicated because Summer objects most strongly – strongly enough to send champions to seek and kill Harry to end his involvement.To make things far worse, the Knights of the Blackened Denarius – Fallen Angels bound to human hosts – are involved. Not just some as he had previously faced – but all of them in their infernal power and plotting, and he only has 2 Knights of the Cross to back him up.And into this web of plotting and lethal intrigue steps the Archive – the sum of all the world and all of history's knowledge.Jim Butcher does epic well – and this was one of the better examples. The sheer number of forces, the sheer power of them made the book epic in and of itself. I like his combat scenes and his ability to fully communicate both what is happening and the powers involved extremely well. Between the battles with Summer's Gruffs, Winter's Hobs, the Archive, the Denarians and even mobsters it all held together well and was an exciting and well paced book to read.He also has a talent for mysteries and this was extremely well done. There were constant questions throughout the books, plots within plots. Hard choices and difficult decisions – and none of it was simple. Yet, at the same time, the information was there and it was technically possible to reach the answer – so we had none of the usual sudden flashes of insight based on random unexplained inspiration that is so common in mystery books. What impresses me most is that this book had a long, difficult and unexplained mystery with several extremely powerful and unknown forces involved yet at the same time never devolved into being too convoluted or confusing to follow. Despite the huge number of actors and notices, the story was never lost, derailed or impossible to follow nor did it become work to follow the threads nor did it become boring through info-dumping and navel gazing.Read more
 - Jim Butcher)
